go ahead, make my day

Hmm, I don't think I've ever actually watched a Clint Eastwood movie, come to think of it . . .
Let’s start off this post with some good old-fashioned flattery. We could all use some of that, right?
So, the lovely Sheryl tagged my blog as one that Makes Her Day. Woo hoo! This cheered me right up as, since slipping and falling on the ice on the way home from work yesterday (no major injuries, just a bruised hip—thankfully I’m not quite geriatric yet), my life has just been one minor, irritating disaster after another. So it’s great to hear that one of my endeavors is actually valued by someone other than me. I want others to feel that same joy, so I’m passing the Make My Day award on to these entertaining and inspirational kids (most of these are knitting blogs):

Knit Happens
See Leann Knit
Knitta' Pleez
Culinary Concoctions by Peabody
Ms MoneyPenny
A Serious Job is No Excuse
Fancie Pants Knits
Confessions of a Clumsy Knitter
Knits & Pieces
Lickety Knit

So go check out all of these blogs, because they’re awesome. And because I said so. And while you’re at it, check out icanhascheezburger.com. I dare you not to laugh! “Stoopid dog, why u not read doormat?” Cracks me up every time!
Legal-type fine print: The rules of the award are : Give the award to 10 people (or more) whose blogs bring you happiness and inspiration and make you feel happy about blogland. Let them know by posting a comment on their blog so they can pass it on. Beware you may get the award several times.

Now, on to the knitting. No, Mrs. Darcy is still not done. Josh and I were very busy having a fight last night about . . . er . . . well, something really important at the time, so I had no time for knitting. I did have time to angrily flip through a new knitting book I got, so here’s a brief review of Knitting New Scarves: not worth your money. That’s not to say that there’s anything especially terrible about it, but I just don’t, personally, see the merit in trying to knit overly-complicated scarves. If you feel you’ve exhausted the scarf medium, that should be the necessary push you need to branch out to more difficult items (yes, that’s my whole one year of knitting experience talking!). There are a couple worthwhile patterns here (the scarf on the front was the initial draw for me), but many of the scarves are awfully similar, and some of them are just weird—do you need a three dimensional scarf that resembles a string of shark fins? I’m all for a challenge, but I think you need to balance form with function, and a scarf with fins jutting out in all directions probably isn’t going to keep your neck all that warm. But, to each his or her own, so if oddball scarves are your thing, you’ll probably love it—and I think I know where you can buy a discounted copy . . .
I also managed to place a big yarn order last night—yarn for 2 gifts and my 2 swaps. I decided to do the right thing and give WEBS another chance (since they did provide that free shipping code), so fingers crossed for satisfactory service this time around.